Wish I could say that I’ve only had one moment of weakness. Sadly, it happens all too often. Today’s moment of weakness was one of the worst because it was a lack of faith in God. I lost one of my gloves on the beach while husband Alan and I were walking our rough collie Angel Joy. Three times I re-walked our path along the beach, unable to find the glove. Alan put his faith in God into action. He prayed. He asked Jesus to help find the glove. Me? I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t have enough faith. My attitude was, “you can pray but we won’t find the glove. We’ve already looked.”

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. I wasn’t pleasing to God today. The worst shame? He’s already answered my prayers and made all my dreams come true with the publication of “Bridge to Nowhere,” the first in a series of mystery-romance-suspense books set in Three Prongs, Texas, and featuring the lively, impulsive “Miz Mike.” And even more to my shame? About a week ago I actually stood in a parking lot in Inverness, Scotland, and prayed for Jesus to shrink my right foot so it would fit into the boot I was wearing. He did. He’s a big God, a mighty, miracle-working God. Since my right foot is bigger than my left, and since my American feet are too big for Scottish shoes, and since they don’t have half sizes here or my size…I had been greatly suffering with every pair of shoes or boots that I had bought over here. Today, I wore my Wellies for the first time since that prayer. It’s rained and snowed since I last wore the Wellies, but truthfully, I was afraid to wear them again because the hurt my right foot so dreadfully when I do. Today? Pain gone. Right foot fit…it even felt like it had a bit more room in it than the left foot! When Jesus does something, He does it right!

And yet…how did I repay the great and mighty and awesome Lord God Who had answered prayer and made my feet fit the shoes because the shoes wouldn’t fit the feet? I doubted that He could help find my glove.

Forgive me, LORD.

Now had I been on a stand in court today testifying, I would have confidently affirmed that I had written a new post on WordPress yesterday. I remember that I thought about putting a new picture on it, but decided to just write something. What? I don’t remember. That’s part of the mystery. The other part of the mystery is…where did it go? Because, it isn’t here!

Every day that God makes is a good day. He makes every day – so every day is good! Today was no exception. First we had a special “Back to Church” service in Avoch. Members of the congregation shared special hymns, songs and Scripture passages that were special to them and explained why they were so special. Then on to Rosemarkie. I know that as Alan’s wife, I might be a tad prejudiced. Still, the LORD had given him a brilliant message and he did an awesome job of preaching it. That was evidence of the LORD’s strength after all Alan’s been through the past few days with criticism of him for having written a really great time-travel, adventure book, The Scent of Time. The problem seems to be that people expect a pastor to write a dry, dusty study book that will decorate a few shelves for a few years until it gets chucked out because it’s outdated and no one wants it any more. Instead, Alan wrote an exciting, thrilling, heart-rending book that will make a great movie! So when the headlines proclaimed, “Pastor writes sexy book…” among other less tasteful headlines, Alan had a bit of a come-apart. Must say, his Amazon UK numbers are great and Amazon has sold out of paperback editions of The Scent of Time. So I guess the object here is, dare to go for your dreams. Dare to be a writer if that is your dream. Just makes sure that you can handle the pressure when your book suddenly takes off!

Now about me…not so good. It’s something that’s never happened to me before. I was supposed to do the children’s talk, which I love doing. I had my props, had my Scripture passage, had rehearsed the lesson. Then I looked out into the church and saw sparks of anger and hate flashing out of one person’s eyes – the one and only person to have launched a hate campaign against Alan over The Scent of Time, and I lost it. Yes, I gave the talk and I read from Luke, Chapter 2, but I could feel that I was trying to do it in my strength and not the LORD’s. It was like Peter when Jesus was walking on the water. Peter got out of the boat to go to Jesus and was walking on the water just fine until he took his eyes off Jesus and started looking at the storm. That was me today. I took my eyes off Jesus and looked at the storm.

So, friends, take heart. No matter what sparks of difficulty life throws at you, keep your eyes on Jesus. He will see you through. Even if you’re a writer!

Somewhere in cyber space, I have two blogs. This one and one on Blogger. Somewhere, I have Facebook, a Miz Mike Page for Facebook (Miz Mike is the main character in my Christian mystery-romance-suspense, released by Sunpenny Publishing) and Twitter. Only, I don’t think anyone reads the blogs because I think like me–they can’t find them! Someday I may get smart enough to figure out how to link everything together so folks will know the blogs are out there. But for now, I just wish I had God’s Overview. He could see the entire structure of cyber space all at one time and He would know where everything is. But it wouldn’t matter to Him. He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end…He doesn’t need computers or cyber space. But since I don’t have His overview…how I wish I could figure all this out!

We didn’t have computers when I was in school. I graduated from a high school in Georgia. We were the largest graduating class in the history of the school, 31 students, most of whom went on to college. No football team, just basketball. No track, we just ran around a dirt field jumping hurdles. After school we went home to help our parents with gardens, or farming or whatever was required of us. My family had a roadside zoo. So I went home to feed the lion.

Alan got raked over the coals by some folks in the church who thought The Scent of Time was too sexy. These were the mysterious, “some people.” No one seems to want to disclose the names of who these “some people” are. Curious, that. The Scent of Time is a brilliant, realistic story, well worth a read. It’s not too sexy, it’s too real: both exciting and moving. A great book written by a great guy! And this controversy will probably help it sell! Perhaps I need to stir up a “stooshie” to sell my book, Bridge to Nowhere!

We sometimes fear things that really can’t hurt us, or that if they do hurt us, inflict only momentary pain–not that anyone likes hurting! Some people are allergic to bee stings and have reason to be afraid of flying insects. But I’ve seen normal, healthy folks clear fences, barricade themselves behind closed doors and leap out of moving cars–to avoid getting stung by a bee. One bee. Don’t let the fear of one bee keep you out of the garden! Enjoy the gifts of life and beauty that God has given. The imagination of how much a bee sting will hurt is greater than the reality. Be like Miz Mike in Bridge to Nowhere: never let adventure pass you by unmolested–even if it means an occasional bee sting. And if that quote doesn’t make much sense now, order Bridge to Nowhere by Sunpenny Publishing and read the book! Happy gardening!

Yes, Hello World! I’m thankful to WordPress for allowing folks to have free blogs, but I would like the blogs under my name to be things that I actually wrote! For example, I am so proud of my husband, Alan McKean. Not only has he written The Scent of Time, a thrilling “can’t put down” first novel, but he is celebrating 30 years in the ministry on Monday. Praise the LORD! I’m pretty sure that will be mentioned in his two churches tomorrow, and being the humble, wonderful man he is–he will be embarrassed! Congratulations, Darling! I expect you’ll read this sometime when it’s not so late and we’re not both so tired. Even the dog is tired. She went running with me tonight. She’s never run that far before in her life since she spent the first two years of her life in an upstairs apartment flat!